Installing Arch Linux

With the release of the 2009.08 installation media, installing Arch Linux on Asus Eee PC model 701 is pretty easy and straightforward since the stock kernel on Arch installation media support all of the 701 hardwares out of the box.

Therefore, aside from the following pointers specific to the 701 described below, there shouldn't be any other major differences between installing Arch Linux on the 701 and any other computer. You should be able to successfully install Arch on the 701 by following instructions on Beginners' Guide without any problem.

Remote Install

The original Eee PC 2G Surf model 700 netbooks have very small keyboards. If you do not wish to work on this tiny keyboard, the arch install can be performed remotely. The Eee PC remote install is easier to accomplish if the netbook is connected to the local network via ethernet.

Replace the network address according to the address returned when you dhcpcd the ethernet interface. Finally, just run /arch/setup as usual then proceed with the install as usual:

# /arch/setup

Prepare Hard Drive

The most important different between the 701 and other machines is that the 701 use SSD drive instead of normal hard drive. This section advise on how to set up a partition scheme that is best suited to the 701.

The default Eee PC drive is split up into four partitions (here is some information about the partitioning):

It is easiest to wipe the existing partitions and use one or two partitions for your install. One partition would be just '/', and two partitions would be '/boot' and '/'.

Install X

Install X by follow instructions on the Beginners' Guide, then install the Intel graphics driver:

# pacman -S xf86-video-intel

You must also install the Synaptics driver to have touchpad working properly (not needed for Eee PC 900):

# pacman -S xf86-input-synaptics

With the latest version of X from extra repository, X should work on the 701 without any need for xorg.conf. However, if for some reason you wish to use an xorg.conf file, you can use an old example Xorg configuration file for Asus Eee PC model 701 as a template or automatically generate a new one by running the following command:

The synaptics stuff can be removed if you have a EEE PC 900. The Template:Codeline line is important if you need a non-default XkbLayout, because if you don't have it, xorg will find 3 keyboards (at least with the 900 model).
The Modeline has obviously to be removed or modified if you dont have a model with this resolution.

Getting Hot Keys, Graphic Indicators and Shutdown with the Power Button Working

If you want to have working hot keys (wifi, brightness, volume etc), an OSD, and be able to assign actions to things like the powerbutton and closing the lid, then you should install ighea's acpi-eee package.

ighea's acpi-eee

See messages during installation for more details and don't forget to edit Template:Filename to suit your tastes.

For those who use the wireless on/off acpi command; the Template:Codeline setting in Template:Filename, when applicable, should at least release the network. For example, using netcfg2, Template:Codeline will release the connections from before disabling wireless, allowing new ones to be made without netcfg thinking that it's already connected. It is also possible to reconnect to your previous network, however, the network tool you use needs to have a somewhat lengthy timeout as it takes 15-20 seconds for your wireless device to reappear.

Note: Make sure asusosd is enabled on startup if you want to have the Graphic Indicators from Xandros. To run asusosd simply type Template:Codeline at a command prompt.

Asus Eee PC model 701 repository from toofishes

Toofishes created a repository for the 701. The repository contained customized kernel built specifically for the 701 and some additional packages.

While the stock Arch kernel works very well with the 701, toofishes kernel have the following advantages:

Faster boot time – because most of the modules have been compile into the kernel, no time is wasted waiting for the modules to load

Additional Tips & Tweaks

Tweaking kernel-eee

Toofishes' kernel, also known as kernel-eee, can be recompiled to include custom features. You can download toofishes' kernel PKGBUILD and all the nesseary files from his gitweb by installing the git package and using the following command:

There are two ways to tweak the kernel. The first is simply to edit the Template:Filename file with your favorite editor and the second is to insert a Template:Codeline line into the PKGBUILD before the kernel's compilation.

Using Wine with toofishes' kernel

Note: Since kernel-eee 2.6.32eee, wine is working fine without the need of customizing toofishes' kernel as explained below

Normally, Wine won't work with toofishes' kernel because it is compiled with VMSPLIT_2G_OPT option. In order to use Wine with toofishes' kernel, you have to recompile his kernel with VMSPLIT_3G option.

Download the kernel PKGBUILD and all the necessary files from toofishes' gitweb using the above instructions, then change the following lines in the Template:Filename file from this:

...
230 CONFIG_NOHIGHMEM=y
231 # CONFIG_HIGHMEM4G is not set
232 # CONFIG_HIGHMEM64G is not set
233 # CONFIG_VMSPLIT_3G is not set
234 # CONFIG_VMSPLIT_3G_OPT is not set
235 # CONFIG_VMSPLIT_2G is not set
236 CONFIG_VMSPLIT_2G_OPT=y
237 # CONFIG_VMSPLIT_1G is not set
...

to this:

...
230 CONFIG_NOHIGHMEM=y
231 # CONFIG_HIGHMEM4G is not set
232 # CONFIG_HIGHMEM64G is not set
233 CONFIG_VMSPLIT_3G=y
234 # CONFIG_VMSPLIT_3G_OPT is not set
235 # CONFIG_VMSPLIT_2G is not set
236 # CONFIG_VMSPLIT_2G_OPT is not set
237 # CONFIG_VMSPLIT_1G is not set
...

Compile and install the kernel and Wine should now work.

Power down with the power button

Note: If you are using ighea's acpi-eee or dkite's acpid_eee package then you should already be able to shutdown by pressing the power button and should not need to do this.

Use cpufreq for power saving

CPU scaling with p4_clockmod has been dropped from Arch's kernel builds, due to the fact, confirmed by users, that there were no effective power savings with p4-clockmod's module, and it introduced "unacceptable latency", even with relatively low percentage up thresholds.

More responsive system with ondemand governor

The default up_threshold (where it will bump to a faster speed) for the CPU governor is 80, which means it will increase the CPU speed when utilization is above 80%. This can make X applications have a bit of lag.

With 40 it still leaves the majority of CPU cycles at the lowest available clock speed but increases responsiveness. You can add this line to one of your startup scripts (such as Template:Filename) if you wish to keep it, for example:

NOTE to EEE PC 900 owners and possibly others: Using this method will require a flash drive formatted with a FAT16 file-system. If the BIOS update process hangs up at "Reading file 900.ROM" for more than a few minutes then it should be safe to power down your EEE PC and reformat your flashdrive's file-system to the correct one. You can force FAT16 creation with the following command:

The name of the copy must be xxxx.rom where xxxx is the model of your eee PC. (i.e. 900 users it's 900.rom)

Next step, reboot the eeepc with the USB stick pluged-in, and press Alt+F2. It will launch the built-in tool. Everything should be Ok, you can make a coffee during the update. When it asks you to push the power-button it has finished.

At the next boot, you'll be invited to configure the BIOS. Check if the everything is enabled (my webcam and wireless were disabled after the update) and if it displays the good version in the main screen. It's done!

Old method

This then caused the fonts to be even bigger, so I set them all to be font-size 6 by adding the following into Template:Filename (note that this will be overwritten if you use any tools to change GTK settings):

Alternative Method

For me it worked far better to open the gnome appearance control panel, go to the fonts tab, click defaults, and change the resolution to be 96 dpi. Changing .Xdefaults doesnt work when running gnome, as gnome-settings-daemon overrides it. You can then leave all font sizes at their default, and things should look good. Simply changing the font sizes and leaving the DPI at its technically correct value (~134) gave me weird layout problems in some apps, and oddly large fonts in others.

Known problems and their solutions

Sound

For most people, sound should work right out of the box with no troubles. However, others might need to add the following line to Template:Filename

Wireless times out after running dhcpcd wlan0

Wireless doesn't work, even after installing custom Madwifi module

I found that Arch tried to use the ath5k module for wireless, and that meant it took control of the card rather than ath_pci (the module I had compiled and installed). I got a Madwifi status 3 message in dmesg when this happened.

Laggy or Unresponsive ACPI Events

The latest kernel (2.6.26) introduces new problems with Eee's ACPI events handling. Basically, ACPI events become very laggy and after some time ACPI get disabled after a heavy usage (e.g. changing volume, brightness). This problem affects both stock kernel and toofishes' kernel.

You might also want to use IgnorePkg-line in Template:Filename to hold packages from being accidentally updated.

IgnorePkg = kernel-eee madwifi-eee-svn

Also don't forget to upgrade ighea's acpi-eee package to version 9.6.

Unclean unmount during shutdown when having home directory mounted on SD card

If you experienced unclean unmount during shutdown when having your home directory on SD card, then add the following 3 lines to "Write to wtmp file before unmounting" section of your Template:Filename file:

Booting from card without initrd

Let's say you decided to install Arch Linux on a card and compiled your own kernel (or used the kernel26eee kernel) without initrd. Card reader on EeePC is connected as an USB device. Unfortunately, USB storage devices are detected with a delay, so we must tell the kernel to wait until this device becomes available. You do this with "rootwait" option passed to kernel at boot time.

Sleeping and waking system on a card

If you have Arch Linux on a card, waking up from sleeping state will most likely fail. The only solution is to enable the CONFIG_USB_PERSIST option in kernel. The kernel26eee package should have this option enabled.

The command to do this is:

echo 1 >/sys/bus/usb/devices/.../power/persist

Replace the Template:Codeline with the device like 1-3 or 1-5 where the first number is the bus and the second is the device

Each device that is connected to your computer gets an entry in the sysfs "system file system" it is a virtual file system like proc

Display doesn't wake up properly

If you encounter black display (but apparently working system) after suspend/resume, consider using the "uswsusp" package (available in the official repositories) and correcting suspend2ram script in /etc/acpi, where you use this line to make the machine go to sleep: